Exhibitional index and display device.



No. 758,916. PATENTED MAY 3, 1904.

C. HBLLBR.

EXHIBITIONAL INDEX AND D1SPLAY DEVICE.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE.4,1903.

N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

mmm Pumas cn. vmmyuwo. wnuwmun u c No. 758,916. PATDNTDD MAY s, 1904. C. HELDER.

DXIIIBITIONAL INDEX AND DISPLAY DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 4, 1903.

N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

.in f2? W/ywgss/is: l 21g [NVE/WOR CM ,asma C, /sa/w (W @M Bf MW Allo/wey PATENIED MAY 3, 1904.

C. HELLER. EXHIBITIONAL INDEX AND DISPLAY DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 4, 1903.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3 N0 MODEL.

I1/wen tot Wi www@ N0. 758,916. Patented May 3, 1904.v

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OYRUS IIELLER, OF IVILL'IAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF TIVO- THIRDS TO JAMES A. HELLER ANI) JOHN L. IIELLER, OF IYILLIAMS- PORT, PENNSYLVANIA.

EXHIBITIONAL INDEX AND DISPLAY DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 758,916, dated May 3, 1904,

Application filed June 4, 1903. Serial No. 160,057. (No model.)

To /r// w/Lo'm, 'it 'm/rnl/ concern: 0f the Stop with the Cylinden Fig. 11 is an Be it known that I, CYRUs HELLER, a citizen edge View of a stop, showing its relation t ofthe United States, residing at IVilliamsport, wheel, this view being' taken from the front, 5o in the county of Lycoming' and State of Iennnear the base of the machine, and looking upsylvania, have invented certain new and useward and backward.

ful Improvements in Exhibitional Index and The index, names, or the like are borne on Display Devices, of which the following' is a movable and removable cards arrang'ed round specitication. a cylinder-index carrler or supporter for the 55 This invention relates to indexes and simicards or other articles to be exhibited, as will ro lar exlnbitional devices wherein the indexbe explained.

cards are moved to position to show the en- The cylinder 1 is supported on a horizontal tries thereon under the influence of keys on a shaft 2 and 1s pressed forward by suitable keyboard. mechanism, so as to tend to rotate. The cyl- 60 The object of the invention is to arrange an inder is prevented from rotation by a stop 3 index of the g'eneral character of a card-index on the cylinder engaging an abutment 4 on at the periphery of a cylinder or roll and to the frame, and a mechanism, such as a drivcontrol the movementof the roll by key acing-pinion 5, engaging a rack-gear 6 on the tion. Preferably a plural keyboard is used, c\'linder, tends to rotate the cylinder con- 65 so that names can be arranged according' to a stantly in one direction. 2O second or third alphabet or combination of It is not specially important what mechanalphabets,and thenecessityoflookingthrough ism is employed to drive the cylinder. A a large number of cards or entries to find any weight T, connected by cord 8 to a pulley 9 particular name is avoided. on the same shaft with pinion 5, is shown; 70

The invention consists in certain construcbut clockwork mechanism, a coiled spring, or tions and combinations of mechanical elea motor of slight power may be employed. It ments, substantially herein epitomized in is only necessary that the cylinder shall be so the claims hereto annexed. actuated as to be ready to move forward when Figure 1 is an end elevation of the machine free from abutment or detent 4f. The pinion 75 looking' from the keyboard end and keyboards 5 engages gear (i on the cylinder at one side 3o being omitted. Fig'. 2 is a broken longitudiof the center of the cylinder, and the slight nal section of the cylinder and operating' meehupward or downward movement of the cylinanism connected thereto. Fig. 3 is a broken der does not disengage the teeth of said gears. top plan of the cylinder, showing the key- The cylinderl is not attached directly to shaft SO boards. Fig'. I is a front view of the multi- 2. A spider 11 at each end of the cylinder is ple keyboard and connections. Fig. 5 is a rigid with shaft 2, and outside these spiders a broken plan of part ot' one keyboard, showring of balls or similar bearings 12 forms a ing rock-shafts and gate-actuating mechansupport for the end 13 of the cylinder. ism. Fig. 6 is a detail side view of a key and The shaft 2 rests on links 15, which links 85 partialsection of connected mechanism. Fig. 15 are supported by shaft 16. Shaft 16 has 40 T is a plan view of a movable keyboard, partly an eccentric 1 7 near each end and firmly atbroken a 'ay. Fig. S is a broken side elevatached, and this eccentric finds a bearing in tion of rack-bar, showing keyboard conneeor on the frame A. Thus the rocking of tion. Fig. t) is a plan otl keyboard extension, shaft 16 by means of its hand-lever 18 serves 90 which is shown broken in Fig. 7. Fig. 10 is to lift the links 15 and the shaft 2, and shaft 2 a detail view illustrating' the engagement of raises or lowers its spiders and the cylinder 1 the teeth of a pinion with the teeth of the inwhen the shaft 16 is rocked. ternal geared wheels and also the engagement The cylinder 1 is guided in its lifting movement by a block 20, (one at each end of shaft 2,) sliding in a suitable notch in the frame.

The lifting of cylinder l releases it from stop 4 and at the same time engages a pinion 2l on the cylinder with the teeth of a rack 22, which rack may move in a slideway in the frame, as will be described. The pinion 21 always comes into engagement with the rack 22 at the same place when the cylinder is lifted. When the cylinder is dropped by the rocking of shaft 16 back to normal position, the cylinder goes on and completes a revolution, thus bringing stop 3 again into Contact with stop 4, and the parts normally rest in this position.

The keyboard mechanism is best shown in Figs. 3 and 4 and will now be explained. Three keyboards, with banks of keys, are shown, but more or less might be used. The cylinder is divided circumferentially into as many spaces as there are keys on all the keyboards. In the example illustrated seventyeight spaces should surround the cylinder, each space having mechanism for the attachment of cards C. The cylinder should be long enough to contain about twenty six cards when an alphabetical index is employed. In an arrangement by numbers or other basic foundation to the index of course the arrangement would correspondingly differ.

The rack 22 slides in a way 23 in the frame or a slideway thereon. The rack is drawn up in the slideway when released from the pinion 2l by a weight 24, attached to a cord 25,

which cord is also attached to the rack and runs over pulley 26. The power which drives cylinder l is suiiicient to overcome weight 24 and lift the same when the cylinder engages the rackbar 22; but when disengaged the weight draws up the rack-bar and the movable keyboards.

The rack 22 is attached to a bar 30, which bar has a bracket 33, with its edges extending under the edges of the guides or pieces which form the slideway 23. Rolls or other antifriction devices 28 may be used to render the movement easy in the slideway. The shelf 34, which is rigid with rack-bar 22, extends under the keyboard 42`of the third alphabet.

Keyboard 42 has a bracket 43, extending into a guideway 42in the frame parallel with the guideway 23, and this keyboard 42 has a shelf 44 exactly corresponding to the shelf 34 of the rack-bar and extending under the next adjacent keyboard.

The two inner keyboards 42 and 52 are duplicates, and board 52 moves in slideway 53, but to a less distance than does the keyboard 42-that is, the rack-bar may slide in its way the length of the three keyboards, the keyboard next the rack may slide the length of two keyboards, the middle keyboard may slide its own length, and the outer keyboard v 62 is fixed. A downward projection 91 from each succeeding keyboard is engaged by the shelf of the keyboard next toward the rackbar. The movable keyboards are moved upward by the engagement of the shelf with this projection, and the projection on the fixed keyboard serves as a stop to prevent the other keyboards from moving too far under the influence of the weight.

The mechanism to ease friction in the sliding movement of 'the keyboards may be the same in each in stance or any usual antifriction mechanism. For convenience in construction the bars D, which constitute the covers of the slideways, are made removable and held in place by screws 36.

The outer keyboard 62 is firmly secured to the frame at the side of the slideways by any suitable holding means. For convenience of adjustment the outer keyboard should, however, be removable.

In Fig. 3 the keys and rock-shafts are shown on the keyboard on a small scale. In Fig. 4 only the left-hand keyboard is shown with rock-shafts and springs, parts being omitted from the other keyboards for convenience of illustration. Each key is a plunger, arranged so that its lower end may pass entirely through a hole in the keyboard and project below said board. The keys are normally held up by springs 65, resting on key-guides 66, attached to the keyboard. Each key has a pin 67 projecting at one side thereof and in position to engage a lever 68 on the rock-shaft 69 whenever the key is depressed.

Rock-shafts 69 are held in suitable bearings and extend alongside a range of keys. A lever 70 on the rock-shaft engages with a slide 71 near the end of the keyboard. Slide 7 1 is supported in suitable guideways and engages with a gate 72, which gate is pivoted to a bracket 73 on the keyboard. Normally each gate 72 projects below the end of its keyboard, as in Fig. 4. Thus gate 7 2 on the fixed keyboard 62 projects below said board, as shown in Fig. 4, and prevents keyboard 52 from moving down in its slideway; but when any key on board 62 is depressed ythe act of depressing it rocks one of the shafts 69 and swings the gate 7 2, so that its lower end moves away from the front of shelf 54 and let's the keyboard 52 slide down in its guideway. The force of the cylinder, rack, and keyboard connections impel this movement, as explained, and overcome the resistance of weight 24. The key, which thus serves to release the gate holding the neighboring keyboard, itself projects below its own keyboard and becomes a stop for its neighboring keyboard. Fig. 6 shows in detail how the bracket on a keyboard may engage a notch in the key of a neighboring keyboard and hold the key depressed after it is once depressed until it is released by the depression of cylinder l to set all the mechanism back to starting position.

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In the illustration I have endeavored to simplify constructions, and I have not expected to show working` dimensions of parts, but only to indicate the general principles of constructions. Mechanical skill can make many changes` without departing' from the general principles above outlined.

I do not here attempt to describe mechanism for holding the index-cards tothe face of the cylinder. Such means are common in this art.

By preference I attach a hand-rest SO to the frame in front of the cylinder and cover the rear part of the cylinder with a shield oreasing 81. The face of the cylinder is arranged to support the index-cards in well-known manner, and the entries may be made on the cards either before or after their attachment tothe cylinder and on either or both sides thereof. The position of the cards on the cylinder causes them to hang suspended from the lower side of the cylinder and to incline either rearward or forward on the upper side of the cylinder, the line where the cards drop over being the line for inspection, as is usual.

The operation of the machine is as follows: Assuming that the operator desires to inspect a particular name properly arranged among the cards on the cylinderwfor instance, the name y"Hellerf He first lifts the cylinder to starting position by means of lever 18 and connections. Then the operator will depress the key H in the fixed keyboard. Immediately the gate at the end of the keyboard 62 is lifted, and the cylinder l begins to rotate, drawing the rack-bar 22, and by this means drawing down both 'of the inner keyboards until keyboard 52 is stopped by its bracket 54 engaging the depressed key H, when the mechanism comes to a stop. The operator then depresses a key E on the keyboard 52. This releases the gate holding the keyboard 4Q and permits this keyboard to move down until it is stopped by the key, when the machine comes to rest. The operator then depresses the key L in board 42, and the sliding rack is in likle manner released, and the machine moves to its final position, which brings the cards in the peripheral space which contains all names beginning with the letters "H EL to position for inspection at the front of the machine. The fourth letter in the name being L7 he now directs his attention to cards bunched under that letter in the alphabet running lengthwise of the cylinder where all names having' the first four letters H E LL should be found. Then the inspection has been made, the hand-lever 18 is rocked back, lowering cylinder 1 and releasing' it from rack QQ. The

Simultaneously the weight Q4 draws back the bar 22 and the keyboards connected thereto, the depressed keys are lifted by their syjirings, and the gates which hold the keyboards from sliding' down their guideways fall to their holding position.

Suitable buffers may be provided to take up the jar of stopping', such as are common in the general mechanism of the character described. The same is true of the stops to limit the movement of keyboards in the slideway.

The general principle on which the machine with three keyboards operates may be stated as follows: I take a certain space and divide it into twenty-six equal spaces, the number corresponding' tothe number of letters in the alphabet. Beginning' at one end I take the alphabet and designate the first space by "-A, the second by 1), following with the balance of the letters in the regular order they occupy in the alphabet. Thus h designates the eighth, e the fifth, and l the twelfth space, Sac., starting from the front or a space. Now by triplicating this arrangement and letting' a of the second rest against z vor last space of the first and a of the third rest against Z of the second we have seventyeight spaces from the first, inclusive, covered by three alphabets. Now by depressing' key "h I bring the first space or afinthe second alphabet to the eighth space from the beginning of the first alphabet. By depressing e of the second alphabet I bring a of the third alphabet to the fifth space of the second or the thirteenth of the first. Depressing next the l key in the third alphabet, I bring the rack to the twelfth space of the third alphabet or to the twenty-fifth (S-l- .5d-12:25) space from the first space of the combined alphabets. This has moved the cylinder around to within twenty-five of its peripheral spaces from its starting-point or a distance of' fifty-two ofI its peripheral spaces. By a similar operation the keys H A L would move it to the twenty-first space from its starting-point,(S-l-l-l-IQ: 1.) Now the only difference between H A L and H E L is the middle letters A7 and IQ and their relative positions to LA or first letter of the alphabet produce the difference in the results twenty-five and twenty-one. Thus a combination of spaces marked by the letters of the three alphabets and manipulated by keys standing' at the entrance of each one of the spaces serves to distribute the names among' the seventy-eight alphabets running lengthwise of the cylinder. In other words, each circumferential space on the cylinder does not correspond to a letter in the alphabet, but to a combination of three letters of the alphabet, and yet there are seventy-eight spaces, because there are seventy-eight possible combinations.

That I claim is- 1. 1n an exhibitional device, acylindercar- IOO IIO

rying the articles to be displayed, means tending to rotate said cylinder continuously in one direction, a stop by which said vcylinder is held, means for releasing said cylinder from the stop, a sliding piece engaging the cylinder and controlling its rotation, and a Weight operating to move said sliding piece when permitted to do so.

2. In an exhibitional device, a cylinder carrying the articles to be displayed, a horizontal shaft'supporting said cylinder, an abutment on the frame and a stop on the cylinder in position to engage said abutment, and means for lifting the shaft and cylinder so that the stop may ride over the abutment, all combined.

3. In an exhibitional device, the combination of a cylinder, supporting-shaft, means for rotating the cylinder, Va stop for preventing such rotation, means for releasing said stop, a movable keyboard, .and means for actuating said keyboard by the cylinder when the stop is released.

4:. In an exhibitional device, the combination of arotating cylinder, a shaft Within the same having spiders on whichthe cylinder turns, a rock-shaft parallel With the first shaft,

links connecting the two shafts, and eccentrics on the rock-shaft engaging the frame to lift the first shaft and cylinder.

5. In an exhibitional device, the combination of the main cylinder` its supporting-shaft having bearing-blocks thereon, the notched frame in Which said blocks rest, and a rockshaft having eccentrics supported on the frame, and links from the rock-shaft supporting the main shaft.

6. In an exhibitional device, the combination of a cylinder, a pinion thereon, a sliding rack which may engage With Aor disengage from said pinion, .and a movable keyboard actuated by said rack.

7 In amachine as described, .a cylinder and driving means tending to rotate the cylinder continuously in one'direction, a stop by which the rotation of the cylinder is prevented, means for disengaging the cylinder from the stop, and a plurality of keyboards, veach keyboard having keys by Which the stopping position of the cylinder may be controlled, one of said keyboards being movable and controlled in its position by keys on the other keyboard. i i

8. In an exhibitional device, the combination of a cylinder and means for rotating it, of a iixed keyboard, a movable keyboard controlled by the keys of the fixed keyboard, and means by which the keys of the movable keyboard control the position of said cylinder.

9. In an index mechanism, the combination with the exhibit-supporter, of a plurality ot' keyboards, one key-board controlling the position of another, and all controlling the exhibitional position of the supporter.

10. In an index mechanism, thecombination of the index-carrier With a fixed keyboard and a sliding keyboard, the lixed keyboard controlling the position or' the sliding key-board,.

and this in turn controlling the position of the index-carrier.

11'. In an index device, the combination of a cylinder having circumferential spaces equal in number to the keys on a plurality of keyboards, a plurality of keyboards, and connecting mechanism from the keyboards to the cylinder, whereby the position of the cylinder is controlled by the joint action of the keys on the separate keyboards.

12. In an index device, the combi-nation of a rotating cylinder and means for driving it, a keyboard-slideway, a plurality of keyboards sliding in said. Way, means for holding the keyboards by the key action, and operating connections from the keyboards to the said cylinder.

13. In an index device, the combination of a cylinder, a keyboard-slidevvay, a fixed and movable keyboard on said slideway, key mechanism on the lixed keyboard by Which the position of the movable keyboard is controlled, and key mechanism on the movable keyboard by which the position of the said cylinder is controlled.

14. In an index device, a fixed keyboard having a gate and a series of keys each acting to lift said gate, a sliding keyboard held in its slideway either by the gate or by a key of the fixed keyboard, an exhibitional cylinder, and

connections from the movable keyboard to said cylinder to determine its rotative position.

15. In an index device, arotating cylinder, a movable rack connecting to said cylinder as described, a slideWay for said rack, a keyboard connected to said rack and sliding in the slide- Way, key mechanism controlling the position ot said keyboard, and means for moving the keyboard automatically in the slideway.

16.I The combination With the inclined slide- Way having guide-passages for the keyboards, of movable keyboards sliding in said Way, antifriction devices in the guide-passages, and automatic means for moving the keyboards in onel direction.

17. The combination with the inclined slide- Way, of a xed and a movable keyboard thereon, a rack connected to the movable keyboard and of a length equal to that ot the movable and iixed keyboard, and the exhibiting cylinder adjustably connected to said rack.

18. The combination with the inclined slide- Way, of a fixed keyboard, a movable keyboard having a shelf underlapping said iixed keyboard, keys on the xed keyboard in position to engage said shelf, a movable rack underlapping the movable keyboard, and keys on said movable keyboard acting as stops for the rack.

19. The combination with a rotatable Wheel carrying a sequence of exhibitional devices,

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arranged according to a series, of means tend- In testimony whereof I affix my signaturein ing to rotate said cylinder continuously in one presence of two witnesses. direction, a stop for the Cylinder, mea-ns ini v 1 e 4 1 dependent ot the keyboard or releasing the (A RUb HLLLLR 5 cylinder from said stop, and a keyboard hav- VItneSSeS:

ing' keys Connected to and controlling' the J. C. HILL,

stopping position of saidcylinder. B. BERND'I. 

